There are several essential factors in Miller’s portrayal of the Crucible and each one adds to the mounting tension:
- the strong belief in God and equally in the Devil
- the pride in the people of the town (this is rather ironic as pride as one of the deadly sins)
- the close proximity in which everyone is contained, this eventually causes mountains to be made from mole hills
- the fact that they are in a new environment in which their lives are not safe
- they are isolated, surrounded by the ominous forest, which is used as a metaphor for evil
“ (Surprised): You permit dancing.”
To the people of Salem the forest that surrounded the town was met with suspicion. The forest was inhabited with Indians, and as the Indians were not Christians they were believed to be evil, and therefore any association with the forest was considered to be part of the evil. As the girls were struck down by illness after dancing in the forest, it gave the town people the suspicion of the Devil’s involvement.
The original cause of the suspicion was that two of the girls in the town fell ill, one of who was the daughter of Goody Putnam. Having already lost seven children at young ages, Goody Putnam was very worried for the health of her child. She was also becoming suspicious of how many children she had lost, with them all being seemingly healthy at birth. Goody Putnam was the first to cry witch. As the people of Salem based their laws on the teaching of the Bible they believed that the Bible itself told them that witches were to be punished by death.
“ This woman must be hanged! She must be taken and hanged!”
This left the door open for other issues to be “resolved”.
“ A word about Thomas Putnam. He was a man of many grievances, at least one of which seems justified.”
Miller portrays Abigail as a vindictive young woman that wants her own way at all costs. With this illustration of the girl, it is easy to understand how people had been tricked into seeing truth in her fabrications.
However, it is not just Abigail to blame for the witch hunt, Miller is also careful to point out that with Abigail’s strength of mind, many others in the town are incredibly weak in will power. It is this weakness which is equally responsible for the death of the innocent.
The girls, however, did not start with the intention of murdering people. Their only aim was not to be hanged for witchcraft, soon, though, they realized the position of power they were in. It was made perfectly clear the entire town was unhappy for one reason or another, and many people were able to use the girls power to their advantage: Mr. Putnam manipulated his own daughter into accusing Goody Nurse because of his wife’s jealousy towards her.
Miller portrays the people of Salem as vain, proud people, and many of them feel they had suffered injustices. The arrival of a witch-hunt soothed injured pride, and at first appeared to be causing no harm: it was just clearing the town of the undesirables, drunks, beggars. With nothing at stake, it is easy to see why the girls’ stories were believed.
Then people of higher status were brought in: Danforth, Hale etc These people knew nothing of the personal scores to be settled, only that the girls were credited so far. By the time the girls’ stories got out of hand, the pride of the town enabled the girls’ to be believed. It was impossible for Danforth to believe that he, a supposedly intelligent man, had been duped by a group of girls.
“…witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be witness to it? The witch and the victim. None other. Now we cannot hope the witch will accuse herself; granted? Therefore, we must rely upon her victims – and they do testify, the children certainly do testify”.
Pride is also the reason for the death of innocent people in an entirely different manner. Proctor knew the Abigail had never seen a witch, but he was too proud to acknowledge her and so left her to face the consequences. Proctor only acknowledged Abigail at the risk of losing his wife.
Eventually the girls ran away from Salem, so effectively their stories were never doubted. As in the parallel with the MacCarthy witch-hunts the accusations of the girls were preying on already existing fears. The girls were considered to be telling the truth because that is what people wanted to hear.
